Weird Government Projects

Our links and socials: https://linktr.ee/thinktankards Chris picks four weird things governments have actually, really, properly done. All of these have paperwork behind them, which is mental. Australia sends two blokes with machine guns to fight 20,000 emus and loses. The Soviets spend 22 years drilling the deepest hole in the world, get 0.19% of the way to the centre of the earth, and leave it capped like a forgotten drain cover. Revolutionary France decides a day should have ten hours and a minute a hundred seconds, lasts seven months, and accidentally invents the bloody metric system. Imperial Japan floats paper balloons across the Pacific on the jet stream, one of which knocks out the power to the Manhattan Project. All scored on weirdness, ambition, competence, and whether it should have left the meeting room. Content note: civilian deaths, including children. Music by Nathan Smith, Chris Cardill and Dave McGlen.